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How To Get What You Want From The Chinese Government

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Well, within limits. Bizcult has an interesting post up on the basics of lobbying the Chinese government. The post is entitled, "How to Lobby the Chinese Government," and it is based on Scott Kennedy's book The Business of Lobbying in China. According to Kennedy, Chinese policy arises from three things:

1) bargaining between elite politicians and various bureaucracies, 2) expertise provided by intellectuals that include economists, lawyers and researchers in government-sponsored research institutes, 3) National People?s Congress legislation.

To lobby effectively, you need to concentrate on these three processes and the policies they create. Lobbying by foreigners is commonly done in China and the most successful lobbyists are those who communicate and make personal visits regularly. Kennedy has the following to say about where and how to lobby: "Lobbying via Chinese trade associations can have mixed results." There are many such associations, but only some of them have any real power. "Forget about the Communist Party." Kennedy sees the party as "unimportant" for business purposes and he suggests lobbying "the ministries and commissions responsible for daily management and regulation of business policy" where regulation actually occurs. "Don?t cultivate clientelist relationships (read: don?t bribe bureaucrats)." Buying the influence of one local official probably will not help. I agree with all of the above, particularly the point about constant contact with government officials. If you are going to impact Chinese governmental officials (and this is true of government officials outside China as well), the best way to do it is through a real relationship, not just by running to them with your latest immediate problem. Regular readers of this blog know our position on bribery is to just say no. No both because the person you bribe today may be out of power tomorrow and no because you could get caught and put in jail, either in China or in your home country.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on June 30, 2008 (boomark / email).